Tuesday, October 23, 2012

EC100 Miler = 10/20/2012

EC100 MILER - 10/20/2012
Corona, CA
EC100 Miler Endurance Challenge started in Corona and ended at the Santa Monica Pier. The course runs through the coast of Southern California, three counties and 25 cities!  100 miles, 30 hours, 25 cities, 3 counties and 1 cause.  The 100 Mile Club is a physical fitness and life skills project for all individuals based on the goal of running (walking) 100 miles at school or work during a single school year.  The 100 Mile Club goal is to help our runners experience fitness and true personal success through attainable physical fitness goal.  www.100mileclub.com
(pictures courtesy of Jessica Montoya)

Last year I did this race and finished last with a finishing time of 29:57 and this year I was on a mission to not finish last.  I finished in 26:27!!!  I shaved 3 hours and 30 minutes off my time...Can you believe that???  I'm still in awe...
This is mile 97 and I'm still smiling.  I felt strong, excited, motivated and happy to be finishing!  No blisters, no back problems, just pure joy!
 
 My beautiful buckle...
 
 


Thursday, October 18, 2012

WINE COUNTRY MARATHON - 10/14/2012
Healdsburg California
Wine Country Marathon was held in beautiful Healdsburg.  We ran through California's award winning wine region.  There were miles of vineyards and dozens of wineries.  The course had rolling roads and breathtaking views!  Loved the conversation with Cathy and with her help I finished 5:44:32.
 
We look good at mile 10...(don't tell anyone I said that)
 Yes!!! food, wine and beer!!!  It's always fun to see Chris...
(pictures courtesy of Chris Jones)
 
beautiful shirt, wine glass, and a nice medal...
 
 
HORSESHOE LAKE TRAIL MARATHON 10/13/2012
Palo Alto California
 
Horseshoe Lake Trail marathon was run along the Bay Area Ridge trail with beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Cruz Mountains.  I got lost driving to the start and started a few minutes late but I didn't let getting lost stop me from finishing and placing 3rd in my age group.  I finished 7:29:03.
beautiful views...
 
My Journey to Guinness book is now available!
 
 
 


Thursday, October 11, 2012

Rio Del Lago 100K and Quadtoberfest - 10/6/2012

Quadtoberfest Day 1 - 10/5/2012
Lake Merced, San Francisco California
Always have a plan B. My plan was to do Quadtoberfest Day 1 which I did and I finished in 7:02:01 and headed to Roseville California to do Rio Del Lago 100 miler. 
 
RIO DEL LAGO 100K - 10/6/2012
Roseville California
 
The course was beautiful and scenic and it started and finished at Beals Point.  The course ran through Twin rocks, Horseshoe Bar, Rattlesnake Bar, Auburn Dam Overlook, No Hands Bridge into Cool Fire Station.  I made all the cutoffs but all I could think about was the two black bears that I saw last weekend in Lake Tahoe.  Because I had no one to pace me throughout the night I dropped to the 100K (62 miles).
I tagged along with a team of four runners and one of the runners got sick (thank goodness) and walked with me and we finished together.
Jimmy Dean was the guest speaker and the winner of the Lake Tahoe SUPER triple 20:37:27 and I found out that day that I was the women winner of the Lake Tahoe SUPER Triple 30:41:44!  What an honor and how cool was that???
 
I finished the 100K in 19:41:08 and got a few hours of sleep and then drove to San Francisco to do Quadtoberfest Day 3.
Beautiful Buckle
 
QUADTOBERFEST DAY 3 - 10/7/2012
Lake Merced, San Francisco California
I made it to the start with 5 minutes to spare and race director Tracy said" What are you doing here, I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow?"  She was so worried that she wouldn't have a medal for me.  I finished 7:12:10
 
QUADTOBERFEST DAY 4 - 10/8/2012
Lake Merced, San Francisco California
 
 
I finished day 4 of a quad that wasn't planned with Larry Macon in 7:11:11.  That's how I needed up with 3 marathons and a 100K.
26.2+62.0+26.2+26.2=AWESOMENESS!  Another amazing weekend to my journey to Guinness.  Thank you so much for following my journey.
 Who's bad???
 

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

In the "spotlight" with Kino from NYC!

In the "Spotlight" with the amazing Kino from NYC!!!

Hello Yolanda and “The Road To Guinness” blog readers!  First of all, I would like to start off with congratulating Miss Yolanda with her 303 completed marathons by 12/31/2011 & 352 marathons by 6/30/2012, qualifying her for the World Megamarathon Ranking 300+ list (http://www.worldmegamarathonranking.com/World_Megamarathon_Ranking/World_Ranking.html & http://www.worldmegamarathonranking.com/World_Megamarathon_Ranking/USA_Ranking.html)!  Having attained the “megamarthoner” (anyone who has run 100 or more marathons or ultras) designation myself recently, I can appreciate the dedication, time commitment, and sacrifice required to make such a list.  Yolanda is one of less than only approximately 300 people in the world who have finished 300+ marathons!  She truly is deserving of the Yolanda “Guinness Record” Holder nickname that I refer to her by.
So as for my own personal story, how did I become hooked on marathon running?
(picture courtesy of Anders Forselius)
I ran my first marathon four years ago, on 9/21/2008, at a small one hundred person race called the Yonkers Marathon.  It isn’t a well known race despite it being the second oldest marathon in existence.  The 2012 version of the race was its 87th running of it!  I ran this race out of convenience, as it was in the same town as my old company, Kawasaki.  The 2008 Chicago Marathon was supposed to be my marathon debut because I was not accepted into my dream race, the New York City Marathon.  A co-worker convinced me to run Yonkers as a “training run” for Chicago.  The only problem was that the course is a very challenging one that immediately greets runners with a 5 mile uphill that has to be repeated again on the second half (it’s a two loop course).  Not only that, but the course has a 5 hour cut-off, which is strict by marathon standards!  I decided to go for it, figuring I didn’t have much to lose because my goal race was Chicago, and not Yonkers.  Painful doesn’t come close to describing how miserable I felt on that second loop!  My splits went from 2 hours for the first 13.1 miles then 3 hours for the back half.  I finished in 5:00:15.  I was very lucky that the race organizers were generous in letting me finish.  Despite almost being cutoff and almost being the last finisher, I was instantly hooked on marathon running and went on to better my times at the 2008 Chicago Marathon (4:52:16) three weeks later, then again at the 2008 Philadelphia Marathon (4:39:42) six weeks after that.
Without my knowledge, running 3 marathons within 3 months qualified me for the Marathon Maniacs club.  I would later find out about this club and join in 2/2009, becoming MM #1382.  It is through this wonderful club and the 50 States Marathon Club that I would encounter fellow crazies and inspirational athletes like Yolanda and others! 
Distance running appeals to me because it leads to a 26.2 mile path to self improvement.  The definition of “improvement” has taken on different meanings at times, but the desire to strive hard and better myself has never changed.  My initial goal, in 2008, was to keep improving my marathon times, which I was able to do by PR’ing my first 5 marathons.  Then in 2009, I wanted to use marathons as an excuse to explore the world and visit as many of the 50 states as I could (I am currently 3 states away from completing this goal, 4 years later, and expect to finish at the Honolulu Marathon in Hawaii on 12/9/2012).  In 2010, I wanted to be able to run further and completed my ultramarathon goals of finishing my first 100 miler (in 28:23:21 at Javelina Jundred aka JJ100 in Arizona on 10/23/2010) and running 100 miles in a 24 hour race (102.89 miles at FANS 24 Hour Run in Minnesota on 6/4/2011).  In 2011, I wanted to become a prolific runner and attain the highest level within the Marathon Maniacs, the 10-star Titanium level.  I accomplished this on 9/17/2011 at the NorthCoast  24-Hour Endurance Run in Ohio, by finishing marathons or ultras in 30 states/provinces/countries in a 365 day period.  In 2012, I continued this goal and ran my 100th marathon / ultra, on 6/3/2012 at Comrades Marathon (56 mile ultra) in South Africa.  It was my favorite race experience to date.  Those South Africans sure know how to make foreign runners feel welcome!  This ultra finish allowed me to join the 100 Marathon Club North America and the Full Hyaku Club.   Currently, I am focusing on trying to become a 50sub4 Club finisher by running a sub-4 hour marathon in all 5 states.  As of the time of this writing (9/28/2012), I have run sub-4’s in 35 states, and hope to finish 50sub4 in 2013.  I am concurrently trying to lower my PR time to be fast enough to BQ (qualify for Boston, “Boston Qualify”).  To do that I must drop my PR time down by 9 minutes 13 seconds, from a 3:19:12 to 3:09:59, which is a little over 21 seconds/mile faster, for a 7:15 min/mile pace.  This sounds tough, but at least it keeps things interesting by giving me something to shoot for.
Along the way, something dreadful occurred, inspiring me to run more often.  In 1/2009, my then girlfriend’s mother was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer.  It was the same disease that took away my beloved uncle from this world six years prior, and has needlessly taken away the lives of too many others.  My girlfriend-at-the-time and I began volunteering for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN, http://www.pancan.org) and we raised awareness and funding for the charity for an upcoming team relay.  The fundraiser was so successful, raising over $26,000, that it made me realize the power of running and its ability to bring attention to underrepresented causes that are in dire need of help.  My first fundraiser campaign was for PanCAN, in which I ran 14 marathons in 13 consecutive weekends.  I only intended to run 5 marathons in 5 states in 5 weekends, but the support I received was tremendous and I could not let the fundraiser end so quickly.  I have since gone on to raise funding and awareness for 3 other charities: Back on My Feet (BoMF) to combat homelessness in our inner cities, the American Cancer Society (ACS), and Mount Sinai Medical Center’s WTC Health Program to provide free medical screenings and treatment to 9/11 First Responder veterans.  I have raised over $60,000 so far, but I aspire to continue using running as a vehicle to help out the smaller charities and the causes they represent.  If you would like to learn more about my efforts, please visit RunKino on Facebook, Twitter, & RunKino.com .
Thank you very much for your time in reading this post and learning about my running career, aspirations, and fundraisers!
WTC Health Program Fundraiser: https://philanthropy.mountsinai.org/kino
PanCAN Charity Fundraiser: http://tinyurl.com/runkinopancan
Back on My Feet NYC Launch Fundraiser: http://tinyurl.com/runkinobomfnyc 
Strength in Running,
-Kino-
 
 
 
 



Thursday, October 4, 2012

Lake Tahoe Super Triple 9/30/2012

LAKE TAHOE SUPER TRIPLE - 9/30/2012
Lake Tahoe California

The Lake Tahoe Triple was my 6th year but my first year attempting the SUPER triple.  The SUPER triple is 3 days of running (walking) around the beautiful Lake Tahoe.  Day one (Friday) we started at Emerald Bay and finished near Spooner Lake.  Day 2 (Saturday) we started near Spooner Lake and finished in Commons Beach in Tahoe City.  The SUPER triple we started at 8pm on Saturday (Day 2, 72 miles) at Pope Beach and finished with Day 3(Sunday) at Pope Beach with the regular marathon which total to 124.4 miles around the beautiful Lake Tahoe!  I had the pleasure of doing the SUPER triple was my good marathon buddy Jennifer and if it wasn't for Jennifer keeping the pace throughout the night, I would not have gotten through it. Also Jennifer and I were Two of only Four WOMEN who have ever finished the Tahoe Super Triple!!!

Day 1 was beautiful and good weather...
I finished Day 1 in 6::05:10
 
Diana and Cyndie having fun at the triple!
Day 2, postcard beautiful!!!  I love Lake Tahoe...
 
I met the beautiful Stephanie...She did the Triple Half Marathon...
 
I set a personal record...5:46:01
 
Jennifer and I started the Super Triple at 8pm on Saturday night!
 
Chris made our last 8 miles so much fun!
 
Chris, Jennifer and I finished the "Lake Tahoe Super Triple"
together...We finished Day 3 in 18:50:33..WOW!!!
Jennifer and I were 1st and 2nd female finishers!
I don't like to brag but the Lake Tahoe SUPER Triple was not easy.  We had altitude, heat, hills, more hills, and not to mention the two big black bears we saw.  Life is full of challenges but if you believe in yourself, your dreams and never give up, you too can accomplish anything you set out to do!   I did and I'm still smiling!
 
Love the bling!
 
I would like to give a special "thank you" to Dan for crewing Jennifer and I throughout the night.
 
 
My book "My Journey to Guinness" is available now!  Get your copy today.